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A Fun But Flawed Experience

Lego games have always stuck to a
specific formula. Take one part platformer, two parts comedy, add some
collectables for length, a bevy of unlockables, and tie it all together
with a a series of levels that can be accessed from a home location of
sorts. Lego Batman attempts to take this tried and true formula to new
heights by creating a vast and very busy open world for the player to
explore. While the concept is a great one in theory, the game is
weighted down by a slew of technical issues that hold back an otherwise
solid game.

The game opens with with Gotham City's
"Man of the Year" award presentation. The competition is narrowed down
to just Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor . As the award is given out, the
Joker attacks along with a rogues' gallery of other villains. It is up
to Batman to save the day (and by no means does he need Superman's
help). The story plays out over a series of fifteen levels and builds
from Batman & Robin in the early stages to a who's who of Justice
League members by the end.

The story for this game is vastly more
complex than the first Lego Batman game, and because of this, Telltale
Games elected to use a voice cast to convey the story, rather than
utilize the typical silent, purely physical acting of other Lego games.
This works to the games favor in some aspects while at the same time
making you wish that they might have just taken away some of the
complexity to maintain that silent flair. When the dialogue hits on all
cylinders it is both fun and coherent, but at times, it misses the mark.
I particularly found myself missing Mark Hamill within 5 minutes of
hearing the Joker speak.

The campaign levels contain every bit as
much puzzle and problem solving gameplay as you may have come to expect
with these games. Both Batman and Robin have at least one suit return
from the previous game, but add a few others that mix up the gameplay
and made the experience feel fresh and different. The puzzle solving
particularly stood out with the addition of the JLA members, who have
many of the same abilities as Batman and Robin's suits, but have better
accessibility to those abilities. Combat is fairly straight forward, and
at times can be a bit chaotic with up to 10 enemies on the screen at
once, but the game is not difficult by any stretch of the imagination;
seeking more to work the brain than the combat reflexes.

The game can be played either solo, with
a computer controlling your partner(s), or with split screen co-op. I
was disappointed to find that I completely despised the manner in which
split screen was incorporated with this game. I have granded three Lego
games at this point (Batman, Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and Indiana
Jones, and have nearly granded Lego Star Wars 2), and with each of the
previous games, I always found that the co-op experience was the best
way to experience the game. However, this is the first Lego game I have
played where the players are allowed to move in separate directions from
one another, with the screen splitting into two views, rather than
expanding the camera view to the point where it is difficult to
ascertain direction.

My problem is not with the splitting of
the screen, as I feel this is a genuinely good direction for these games
to head in. However, the view that is provided can be severely
limiting. On more than one occasion, I found myself in a platforming
situation, where the camera angle provided to me by the split screen cut
off at my waist. This made more than one platforming sequence a rage
inducing affair. The other issue with the splitting of the camera views
is the distance at which it splits. As my friend and I played, we found a
number of instances where we were less than half a screen's distance
apart, but rather than take the easier to process full view of what we
were doing, the game split the the screen with the individual camera
views literally overlapping. This can be downright obnoxious in some
areas as you try to process and solve puzzles and problems within a
level. So, while I feel moving to a split screen was a good move for
these games, they definitely have a lot of work ahead to make the views
more functional and to the advantage of the player, rather than the
detriment. Solo play was the vastly better experience with this game.

As I stated before, the game does not
stick to the same formula of having a central home location for the game
to progress from. The game takes place on three different islands that
make up Gotham City, and you must travel to each new mission (these
missions can then be accessed on the Bat Computer for free play). Rather
than have vehicles, characters and red bricks for sale at a centralized
store, the player must find them throughout the city and purchase them.
In the case of super villains, the player must defeat the villain and
then purchase them. The city is fairly large, and I was pleasantly
surprised to see the number of puzzles spread out throughout the world
for the player to find and collect gold bricks. Only 61 of the game's
250 gold bricks are within levels, while the rest are spread across the
rooftops and alleyways of Gotham.

While the open world provides some very
cool changes to the gameplay formula, it also shows the some of the more
severe technical issues. Vehicles and other items that show up on the
map will not spawn when you arrive, while other times, they will
suddenly pop into existence after a few seconds of being there.
Additionally, everytime that you collect a gold brick the game saves and
during this time you cannot move. This is particularly bad when playing
splitscreen, as both may be attempting to get gold bricks which can
involve very intricate platforming. Should a player collect a gold brick
while the other player is in the middle of a jump, the jumping player
will fall straight down, and not be able to move unto the save process
is complete. On more than one occasion my friend and I miscommunicated
and accidentally lost a few minutes of progress. This made the
collect-a-thon mechanic tedious at best.

Beyond that, I experienced a bevy of
glitches and bugs; from enemies running in and out of walls, to
collectable enemies randomly disappearing in the middle of combat. The
game just seems to lack a sense of being fine tuned, and some design
choices were mind boggling. For example, the islands are set up, so as
to prevent the player from advancing to other sections too soon. To do
this, one island is blocked off by gates that require Superman's heat
vision to open. However, I found a building with a gold block right next
to one of these gates that you can use the bat suit to glide over the
wall (you need the suit to get the gold block) and open a passage to the
island at a very early stage.

The best example I can give to emphasize
this feeling of lack of polish is the the last level of the game. The
first two times I played it, the level ended prematurely as I attempted
to collect a mini-kit up in the air. My friend and I thought that Lex
Luthor had been up in the helicopter above, somehow. However, as I was
doing my freeplay runs to clear the game 100%, I found that the game had
simply glitched and skipped two whole boss battles. Twice this
happened, so it wasn't an anomalous occurrence.

All in all, I found the game to be a fun
game, but its technical issues serve as major detractors. With more
polish, this could have been a fun and memorable experience, but its
problems relegate it to being noting more than an average game.